


A Spoonful of Sugar (helps the medicine go down)

by Victori



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Humor, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Protective Tony Stark, Sick Peter Parker, Sickfic, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 18:38:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17493167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Victori/pseuds/Victori
Summary: “’M not sick.”Tony just ruffled the kid's hair. “Don’t go spreading your germs, Spider-baby.”“I’m not sick!” Peter protested. “Spiderman doesn’t get sick!”ORPeter Parker gets sick while staying at Tony's for the weekend, and Tony may get a little overprotective.(rating is Teen because I used one f-word and am paranoid)





	A Spoonful of Sugar (helps the medicine go down)

“Are you sure you’ve got everything?”

Peter nodded and sighed. “Yeah, Aunt May.”

“Toothbrush, change of clothes?”

“Yup.”

“Underwear?”

“May!”

Peter was blushing a bright red, and Tony was barely containing laughter. May was going out of town for the weekend, but, judging by the size of Peter’s suitcase, one might assume that she was going on a two-year trip around the world.

May turned on him, and Tony put on the most serious “I’m-an-adult” face he could muster.

“Tony, I want him in bed by 10.” She silenced Peter’s huff of protest with a glare. “And you know the number to call if you need anything.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “I’m not some teenage babysitter. I can handle a kid for two days.”

May eyed him warily for a moment, then turned back to Peter, engulfing him in a hug. “You stay safe. Call me every day.”

Peter smiled and hugged her back. “I will. I promise.”

May surprised Tony by giving him a hug too. However, the act proved to be less-than-friendly, as she whispered, “I’ll kill you if you give him alcohol”.

Tony was still standing frozen in shock and fear as May donned her smile, waving at Peter and blowing him a kiss. “See you sweetheart! Larb you!”

Peter beamed in response. “Larb you too!”

The door closed, leaving Peter and Tony alone.

“Kid, I’m just gonna say it,” Tony broke in. “Your aunt is scary as hell.”

“No kidding. Remember how freaked she was when she found out I wa- _Achoo!”_

Tony whipped his head around. “Was that a sneeze? Did you just sneeze?”

Peter sniffled. “Maybe.”

_Kid’s a bit of a smart-ass._ “You’re not allowed to get sick on me, kiddo. Your aunt would never forgive me.”

“’M not sick.”

Tony just ruffled the kid's hair. “Don’t go spreading your germs, Spider-baby.”

“I’m not sick!” Peter protested. “Spiderman doesn’t get sick!”

As it turns out, Spiderman does get sick.

After staying in the lab until midnight—sorry, May—Tony had ushered the exhausted teen to bed. Well, when he says ushered, he literally means _carried,_ but he would deny it even if he had a gun pressed to his head. But the night was long over, as was morning, and Peter had yet to emerge from his room at the compound.

Tony gave a gentle knock at the door. “Pete, I know we stayed up a little late last night, but surely twelve hours is enough sleep.”

No response. Tony knocked louder. “Pete?”

Nothing. Okay, drastic measure time. “You better be decent, kid!” He took one step back and _slammed_ his foot into the door.

The door flew off its hinges, crashing loudly on the ground, and Tony dashed into the room. There he found Peter, not bleeding or dying, but curled under a mountain of blankets.

Tony let out a sigh of relief. “Peter?”

Brown eyes gazed blearily up at him. “Mister Stark?” The eyes fell to the floor, and became clouded with confusion. “What’d ya do to my door?”

Tony didn’t even glance at the door on the ground. “Okay, so _maybe_ that was an overreaction. Maybe. But you weren’t answering, kiddo.”

“Hmm.” Peter seemed to contemplate this for a second. “Time s’it?”

Peter did not seem like himself. Tony knew for a fact that the kid was, to his disgust, a _morning person._ He’d already been surprised that the kid hadn’t been running circles around him at 7 a.m., but now Peter seemed reluctant to even get out of bed.

“It’s noon, Pete.” Tony came closer. “You okay?”

“’M tired, ‘nd my throat hurts.”

Now that Tony was closer, he could see the sheen of sweat against unnaturally pale skin. Placing his hand to Peter’s forehead, he frowned. “You don’t have a fever.” But anyone with eyes could see that Peter was, indeed, sick.

“Up and at ‘em, kiddo.” Tony pulled back the covers, trying to ignore the way his heart clenched when Peter curled into himself.

Peter groaned when Tony gently lifted him by the arm. “Where we goin’?”

“We’re going to the lab, short-stack, where I’m gonna run every scan I can to figure out what you’re sick with.”

“’M not sick.”

Tony snorted. “Sure, kiddo, whatever you say.”

Turns out that Tony’s fears were (mostly) unwarranted.

“So, Fri, you’re telling me that the kid just has a cold?”

“The scans didn’t detect anything else, boss, and he has all the symptoms of the common cold.”

“Huh. Well, how ‘bout that?” Tony sent a worried glance in Peter’s direction. The boy coughed, rough and scratchy, and now that Tony was no longer concerned that Peter might keel over and die at any moment, it suddenly hit him that he had absolutely no idea how to take care of a sick super-teen.

“Fri? How do we…” Tony gestured to Peter, “…fix him?”

“Web MD suggests fluids and rest, as well as some cold medicine.”

“Do we have any cold medicine?”

“Yes, boss, Ms. Potts bought some the last time you were sick.”

Tony smiled. _Everyone needs a Pepper._ “Where can I find it?”

“Second bathroom, medicine cabinet, third shelf.”

Tony came back five minutes later, Benadryl in hand, only to find that Peter had not moved a single inch, staring at the wall. “You good, Pete?”

Peter yawned. “’M sleepy.”

“I know, but you gotta drink some stuff before you go to bed. Starting with this.” Tony poured the medicine into the little cup, holding it out to Peter. Peter looked between the cup and the bottle, and, with inhuman speed, snatched the bottle from Tony’s hand and _chugged._

Tony snatched the bottle away, leaving Peter sputtering. “Peter, what the _fuck.”_

He grabbed Peter and spun him around, forcing him to look Tony in the eyes. “This could _kill_ you, Pete, you could _die_ and I—” Tony’s heart was racing. What should he do? Rush Peter to the hospital? The kid actually could be dying right now, he could die at any second, and he couldn’t lose this kid, he had to—

“ _T’ny.”_

Tony’s eyes snapped to Peter, who didn’t look nearly as worried as someone who overdosed on Benadryl should be.

“’M fine, Mr. Stark. I need more than normal people, ‘member?” Peter had a dazed look on his face, but he seemed to know what he was talking about. “I have a fast…” He frowned, trying to think of the word.

“Metabolism?”

Peter nodded. “Metabolism.”

Tony let out a breath. “Okay, okay, but no chugging from the bottle, alright? We don’t want you accidentally overdosing.”

“Okie, Mr. Stark.”

“You think you can eat?”

Peter nodded again.

Soup turned out to be less of a challenge than Tony had thought. It was literally just heating up liquid in a bowl, something that Tony had known how to do since college. Unfortunately, thanks to Peter’s enhanced metabolism, Tony had to go through eight cans of four different kinds of soup before Peter quietly announced that he was full.

Tony guided the kid to the couch, and wrapped him up in the softest blanket he could find. He put on Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back—the best of the original trilogy, as the kid claimed—and sat on the far end of the couch, just watching the kid, in case he needed anything.

Apparently, the only thing Peter really needed was Tony. Peter crawled over to where Tony was and laid his head right in Tony’s lap.

For a moment, Tony froze. This was normally where he’d push someone off, make up some lame excuse and disappear for the rest of the night, but this was _Peter_. Sweet, nerdy Peter, who was sick with a cold and looked absolutely miserable, and Tony pushed away all the insecurities that his father had instilled in him and ran his hand through Peter’s curls. The curls were messy, not having been brushed that morning, but soft, and Peter made a happy little sound and snuggled in closer.

God, the kid was too precious. If Tony moved, he was pretty sure he’d be breaking a law, because no one should disturb a sleepy kid with a cold, especially not if the kid was Peter Parker.

The kid was dozing off. His breaths were getting softer and longer, his chest rising and falling against Tony’s knee.

“G’night, Mister Stark,” Peter yawned. “Love you.”

Tony’s heart stuttered, nearly stopping, but then filling up with so much affection that he thought for a second that it might burst. He planted a light kiss onto the crown of Peter’s head. “Love you too, kiddo.”

In the morning, Peter would be better. May would call, furious, demanding to know why the message Peter left at three in the morning sounded so incoherent, and Tony would have to explain that the kid was not, in fact, drunk, but drugged up on a quarter of a bottle of Benadryl. The next day would bring hardship, and the next months would bring pain like Tony had never known.

But that night, it was peaceful, and quiet, and Tony drifted off to the sound of his child’s breathing.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo this fic was actually supposed to be wayyy darker, and contain a character death, but halfway through I decided that this was too cute and I'd hurt myself too much by killing off a character. So I hope you enjoyed this fic, which is only fluffy because I am a coward.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!


End file.
